Marun al-Naqqash — English Wikipedia

English Wikipedia article on Marun al-Naqqash; used for entity facts only. It gives his birth at Sidon on 9 February 1817 into a Maronite family, his work as chief clerk of the Beirut customs and member of its chamber of commerce, his 1846 journey to Italy, his Arabic adaptation of Molière's Miser as Al-bakhil (published 1847, staged 1848), the first known theatre performance in Arabic, his two later plays, and his death of fever at Tarsus on 1 June 1855. Its lead calls him personally a 'Maronite merchant', and it names his brother Nicolas and his nephew Salim as fellow men of the theatre.